Called to Serve in the South Africa, Durban mission.
July 2013 -- July 2015

Monday, February 24, 2014

Masianokeng, Lesotho!

OK, so I'll start by answering the
questions you sent :)

I'll just wear the cultural stuff
here to keep warm haha it's not like Provo, the snow isn't that much so I'll be
fine. It will just be left here if you send it cause I can't take it with
me..... If you send anything, don’t send anything expensive.

I traveled to my area on bus halfway
and the other half by pick-up truck driven by missionaries. It was a 12ish hour
trip.

My new area is called Masianokeng in
Lesotho it is located east of Maseru (the capital city) Maseru is NOT
comparable to a city back home....

Elder Allen is my new companion and
he is from Texas. He is cool and we get along really well and we understand each
other really well.

Our boarding is nice. It had a lot
of bed bugs in the past but it's ok now....we hope. The other boarding for the
missionaries in Maseru have thousands of bed bugs infesting their boarding and
it's disgusting :(

We usually feed ourselves cause the people
here don't have the means to feed missionaries. They are way poor. But I love
em! The branch is small but we're working on it. There are a lot of cool people;
quite a few people in the villages. We do tract. It's sometimes helpful but it's
hard because half the people you meet only speak Sesotho. I speak Zulu with
those that know it here, but I speak it better than any I've met yet. I
introduced myself completely in Sesotho (the language here) in church yesterday,
and it's been 5 days. I have already learned a lot of Sesotho. It's fun
learning a new language :)

No, I did not receive a package
before I left Umlazi, what did it consist of? I got the flash drive and I need
to send it back soon.

We don't have any couple
missionaries here cause they went home, so we are just a few missionaries out
in the middle of a small kingdom in the mountains trying to do our best haha.
So when I was traveling here I got to meet my baba or trainer. He goes home
soon but we had a nice reunion. I love Elder Kinyaka. Eish that guy is cool. He
told me I was his favorite companion. Everyone knows me here because of what he
told them. Wow he is such a nice guy I love him. Ke o rata .

The culture here is cool. The water
is bad; man it was a cool experience. Nothing here really can get me down. haha

We have a LOT of work to do, president
even told me that but I can't wait to dig in and to bury myself in this work
and submerge myself with their culture as well!

Ngiyanithanda (Zulu) futhi (Sesotho)
Kea le rata!! Sala kahle!

Rato, Thando,

Elder Petrie

American
Candy would be nice to give to the African children. Please pitch into the African
children candy fund ;) hahah